[Illustration: A very rare, and possibly the only, programme in existence, chronicling Robert-Houdin's first appearance before Queen Victoria, July 19th, 1848. The original, now in the Harry Houdini Collection, was presented to James Savren by Robert-Houdin.] [Illustration: Poster used by Robert-Houdin during an Easter engagement at the St. James Theatre, London. From the Harry Houdini Collection.] When Torrini was able to resume his performances, Jean-Eugene returned to his family in Blois. During the next few years he mixed amateur acting with his daily labor, leaning more and more toward the profession of public entertainer. But his ambitions along this line were nipped in the bud by marriage. Mademoiselle Houdin, whose father was a celebrated watchmaker in Paris, visited old friends in Blois, their native town, and became the fiancée of young Robert. As the new son-in-law was to share the elder Houdin's business and naturally wished to secure such benefits as might accrue from so celebrated a family of watch and clock makers, he applied to the council of state and secured the right to annex "Houdin" to his name, Jean-Eugene Robert, and thereafter was known only as Robert-Houdin. His life between 1838 and 1844 was divided between reading every work obtainable on magic, and his duties in his father-in-law's shop, where he not only made and repaired clocks, but built and repaired automata of various sorts. His family shared with him many financial vicissitudes, and about 1842-43 his first wife died, leaving him with three young children to raise. Earlier in his "Memoirs" he speaks of having four children, so it is more than likely that one died before his wife. He married again soon, and though he gives his second wife great credit as a helpmate he does not state her name. [Illustration: Robert-Houdin as he appeared to the English critics. Reproduced from the _Illustrated London News_, December 23d, 1848.] [Illustration: ROBERT HOUDIN'S SOIREES FANTASTIQUES Poster used in 1848 in London by Robert-Houdin. From the Harry Houdini Collection.] By this time he had acquired more than passing fame as a repairer of automata, and in 1844 he mended Vaucanson's marvellous duck, one of the most remarkable automata ever made. Doubtless other automata found their way to his workshop and aided him in his study of a profession which he still hoped to follow. During these discouraging times he was often assisted financially by one Monsieur G----, who either advanced money on his automata or bought them outright. In the same year, 1844, he retired to a suburb of Paris, and there, he asserts, he built his famous writing and drawing figure. [Illustration: Poster for the Emile-Houdin benefit at St. James's Theatre in 1848. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]